Happy New Year

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas! We sure did. It was so nice to go to my parent's house and get to rest a little bit. Ryan and I were completely exhausted from our move and it's not over yet, but the kids had a wonderful Christmas and so did we!

Unfortunately, we will not have a phone, internet or cable TV until January 5th! Ugh...January 5th!! So this blog is going to be silent for awhile. I'm sitting on the floor in our townhouse right now, but the internet will be cut off here soon. So if you need to get in touch with us over the next week or so, don't email me because there is no guarantee when I'll get it.

So have a happy new year!! And I'll talk to you in 2010!

Happy Birthday Jesus

(Picture taken at our Happy Birthday Jesus party last week! All cake decorating was done by Christian himself.)


Happy Birthday Jesus!
We love you and are so thankful that you chose to come to Earth for us!

Home sweet home!

Slowly but surely we are getting settled. I ate by breakfast by this fire this morning.

And this is my view out the window in the family room. Isn't that a quaint little red barn?

We are completely amazed that in 48 hours we have moved almost everything into our house. We have some incredible friends who have been totally selfless this week. We have seen God's love in the most tangible of ways this week and we feel so humbled and blessed. We miss our kids terribly, but I know they've been having a blast. Thankfully, I'll be the one tucking them into bed tonight.

So Happy Christmas Eve to you!
Just know that as I'm cleaning and unpacking today I'm going to be praying specifically for you!! Yes you! I'm praying that the "eyes of your heart" will be opened to Jesus like never before. I'm praying that even in all they busyness that today and tomorrow entail that your mind will wander to Him and that you will be able to steal a few moments away to WORSHIP Him!

"Oh come let us adore Him! Christ the Lord"

Christian's new room!!!

It used to be pink. And 48 hours, two coats of paint and lots of achy muscles later it looks like this.

I love this wall!!! Those are red peg boards hanging on the wall under his name that he can hang stuff on.

I think that little basketball hoop will be a big hit!

It's all ready for my sweet boy!

I am so tired!

Like that "my brain is fuzzy and I can't see straight" kind of tired. Someone forgot to tell McKenna that mommy is moving and didn't go to sleep until after midnight last night because that little sweetie woke up at 1:44 am and decided to have a little middle of the night party with me. Christian was sharing a room with her because my parents were here, so I couldn't let her party and jump around in her bed. So she came in my bed to snuggle, but instead ended up playing a very frustrating game of "where's the binkie" in the middle of the night. "Where's the binkie" is her favorite game. She'll hid it down her shirt, or sit on it and put it under her arm and say "binkie where are you?" and you're supposed to find it. Very cute in daylight! Completely annoying at 2am!

So I'm tired, but we're getting so much done!!!! Our 10X20 storage container is empty! Christian's room is half painted! The pantry, laundry room, kitchen and one bathroom are super duper clean! The kiddos are having a grand time at PopPop and Grandmom's house. And we have some pretty amazing people in our lives that we absolutely adore! We could not have done this without them. A few more are on there way here now, so I've got to get back to work :)

We did it!

We finally have a place to call "home" again! We signed the papers and there is no turning back now. I think it's safe to say that we are all completely exhausted. Every single second of our day was full. I've spent the last 5 hours cleaning the new house and we've already gotten one truck load of stuff moved over to the new house (thanks Todd!!) Tomorrow is another very full day that includes a lot more cleaning, some painting, more packing, more unpacking....you get the idea.

We started this journey last March....10 months ago....and God has been faithful!! Thanks for your encouragement and prayers along the way!

TODAY :)

• Christmas program at Christian's preschool! He's a shepherd! It should be fun!
• Final walk through of the new house.
• Closing. Will probably take forever.
  
• Moving!!!!!

Thank goodness my parents are here to help!!!

Snow Day!

So the snow wasn't all bad. McKenna lasted for about 20 minutes and absolutely couldn't stand it anymore. It didn't help that the snow was still falling and was getting in her eyes.

Christian, on the other hand, lives for days like these. He spent almost four hours outside today. There is a big drainage ditch by our townhouse that is just perfect for sledding. A short steep hill to give you a little speed and thrill, but not a lot of work to climb back up. Ryan built a ramp on the hill about halfway down so Christian could fly up in the air. He had the time of his life! The last time we had a really good snow Christian was 2 and doesn't remember it, so this has been thrilling for him to have snow up to his knees.

This girl will have to try it again next year.

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We had a pretty sad morning around here. We were supposed to go to my parent's house to see all the cousins for a Christmas party. My brother was already there and my wild sister decided to go anyway in all this snow (she made it, but now she's stuck there). But we decided not to risk the two hour drive in all this snow. Christian absolutely sobbed when I told him we weren't going. Thankfully we ended up having a good day. I took a nap. Christian loved the snow. Ryan did some grilling (a blizzard doesn't stop him). And McKenna just spent her day doing what she always does, playing with her babies and snuggling us! We were also supposed to pick up a truck tomorrow and start packing it. Now we can't get a truck and won't be able to begin loading one until sometime on Monday. It just sets us back a little and makes it harder to get things organized, but we'll get it done.
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I hope you were enjoying the snow today if you're on the east coast! What were you up to today?

So apparently McKenna does NOT like snow!

Update:

Two rooms done! Plus a lot of another room. Plus three loads of laundry! Doing good over here!
Onward!

P.S. The sellers are moving out of their house today! Very exciting!

New Strategy

Today it's time for a new packing strategy. I've spent this entire week packing (amongst other things like volunteering at Christian's school and a very fun "Happy Birthday Jesus" party). So far I've been packing a bookcase here, then a cabinet there, a few drawers of stuff in another room, sorting some stuff in a different room, then I'll do a little laundry. THIS STRATEGY IS NOT WORKING! It's only making me insane. Yes, I'm getting it done, but there's no order to it and no sense of accomplishment. So today I'm going to pack one ROOM at a time. Then I can check that room off the list and move on to the next one. First up, the bathroom (picking an easy small one to get me going)! And you're keeping me accountable (sorry if you didn't feel up to the task, but now you're involved). No more blog posts or time spent on the internet (trying to avoid all the stuff I have to do) until I have two rooms packed. Hmmmm....let's see how long this takes!

Visiting Grandmom & PopPop

The kids and I had a great weekend at my parent's house!
Christian & McKenna hung their stockings, since that's where we'll wake up on Christmas morning.

Christian is starting to have a really good memory. He remembered this Christmas train that my parent's had put up last year, but that they didn't put out this year. He just had to have that train, so PopPop had to go out to the garage and try to find it for him. It was a hit, as any train is!

McKenna got to play with some tiny trains while she watched the Christmas train.

This is a much trickier train than Christian is used to. It kept coming off the tracks and Grandmom was very involved in putting it back on.

Love it that he still gets so excited over a train! I don't really think he's going to outgrow them. He might outgrow Thomas, but then I think we'll just move onto the real trains with the tiny metal tracks.

Christian and PopPop worked on a project.

While McKenna sang Christmas carols with Grandmom.

I wish I had taken more pictures because McKenna was so excited about all the Christmas decorations at my parents house. She was thrilled with the Christmas tree with the packages underneath (she only opened one, you definitely can't wrap things in gift bags with her around). I've got to get a video of her saying, "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!" It's the most adorable thing ever!

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And I've got to share this idea with all the Grandmoms out there. My mom has a small Christmas tree that she calls her "Grandchildren Tree." Every year we give her picture ornaments of the kids and that's the tree they go on. So she ends up with pictures of the kids from every year of their life so far. We do our best to put the date on the back of the ornament, so that we can remember how old everyone was in their picture. The tree is starting to get a little crowded, but it's so fun to look back at all the cousins as babies. It's a sweet tradition. (My sister gets the credit for this idea. She started it a few years ago).

"My Mommy's a Blogger"

Life is pretty tough when your mommy's a blogger! She never puts the camera down!

Christmas Stuff!!

I LOVE Christmas traditions! I think that's what great family memories are made of. This year we've put quite a few things on hold and are just sticking to the basics. We have our advent calendars that contain a piece of chocolate each day (that is definitely not a tradition to skip) and we've got our Jesse Tree that I adore. It has led to so many wonderful discussions with Christian. It's a little different this year because we've found that McKenna is way too distracting to have around for it, so it's not a family thing this year. It's just a Christian and mommy or daddy thing. But I love talking to him about great people of faith like Jacob, Abraham and Ruth!

We didn't do THIS this year! But it's one of my favorite traditions and one that we will definitely be doing again next year!!

And I absolutely adore THIS idea!! I have got to remember this next year because I read this on her blog last year and meant to do it this year and then forgot! Maybe you could remind me Courtney :)

Normally I have a very hard time coming up with gifts that I love, but I wanted to share this one. I love the Leap Frog Scribble and Write!!! It's been such a learning tool for Christian and it's a great car toy on top of that! He finally totally gets the concept of upper and lower case letters all because of this thing. And it has helped him greatly with his handwriting skills! It costs just under $20 which is an excellent price. I think it's perfect for preschoolers, but probably too easy once they get into kindergarten. Just thought I'd mention it in case you needed a good gift idea for a four year old!
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So what are your favorite gift ideas this year?
And what are some of your favorite traditions??
I love getting ideas from other moms, so I hope you'll leave a comment or do a post on it yourself!

Potty Training Questions??

It seems that McKenna needs to be potty trained. I've never been a big believer in early potty training. Christian wasn't potty trained until he was almost three, but he did it in a week and only had one accident because he was READY!! So I've never pushed the whole potty training thing. But I think McKenna has made up her own mind about potty training. She HATE diapers. She takes them off every chance she gets and she tugs and pulls at them because she thinks they're uncomfortable. She wants to sit on the potty. She wakes up from bedtime and naps dry. She tells me as soon as her diaper is wet, so that I can change it. So along with Christmas and moving, I think we might just potty train too. Well, at least as soon as we're moved I think we're going to potty train.
So I've never done this this early and I've never potty trained a girl (just boys) so I have some questions.

I think I'm going to just skip the pull ups. She hates diapers and they're kind-of like diapers, so I think I might skip them. Good idea or bad idea?

Or should I just try pull ups and if she likes them, just let her wear them instead of diapers?

I've been looking in the stores for "big girl undies" and the smallest size I've been able to find is 2T. But McKenna isn't a 2T, she needs like a size 18 months. Any suggestions?

I think I'm going to use a little potty (not the potty seat on the real toilet like I used with Christian) because McKenna is so tiny. Good idea or bad idea?

Am I insane for doing this before she turns two? ha! I think I already know that answer to that :)

Moving!

(Christian & McKenna looking out the window of their new house)
So have I told you what our moving plans are yet??
We close on our new house on the afternoon of December 21st. My plan is to spend the day cleaning and painting Christian's room on the 22nd. And we're going to move on the 23rd of December. How's that for a Christmas present. Obviously this is not the best time to be moving, but we're going for it and we have some very selfless friends who have volunteered to help!

(There has been some talk of this becoming the "train room." Wouldn't that be fun!)
I'm heading to my parent's house this weekend, since Ryan was going to be traveling anyway. I'm planning on trying to recover from this nasty sickness I've been dealing with this week. Because NEXT WEEK is going to be huge! Lots and lots of packing to do! I've barely started and I need to be really organized about this. Thankfully my presents are all bought, wrapped and coming with me to my parent's house this weekend (we'll be having our Christmas morning at their house...because our new house will likely be a disaster!!).
So that's the latest! I hope you have a great weekend and that you're enjoying this season.

Doggie Fan?

I thought this picture was so funny, I just had to post it!
Guess who's not such a fan of doggies?
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That would be McKenna! Here she is trying to get as far away as possible.



Special note to McKenna's daddy:
And that is one of the many reasons why we won't be getting a dog when we move into our new house. Just let me know if you need a complete list of reasons...I will be more than happy to comply :)

Pneumonia

So that explains a lot!
No wonder I've been so tired lately.
No wonder I've been waking up at night having trouble breathing.
Silly me just thought it was my asthma acting up.

So I went to the doctor today to get a new inhaler and he says;
"Well, the good news is that it's not full blown pneumonia."
And I say;
"What on earth are you talking about? That's not good news at all!! Are you telling me that I have pneumonia??"
He says;
"Yes, it sounds that way. But I think you can get over it on your own. It's just walking pneumonia."

And I was completely astounded. Totally shocked!! I really didn't think I was sick at all. Just a cold and some asthma. So now I've got my new inhaler and a nifty little antibiotic and I should be better in a jiffy!

Just so you know...

Yellow Jackets can live forever!
I know you probably didn't want to know that, but now you do :)

You see we have a major Yellow Jacket problem here at our townhouse. There is a nest of them somewhere and we haven't been able to find it and neither has the exterminator. So this fall we dealt with yellow jackets every single day. They would get in the car every time we would open the door, they would fly in the house, it was awful! We literally would kill a dozen a day and that didn't even phase them. So I bought this nifty little yellow jacket trap at the store (back in October). The Yellow Jackets go in and then can't get out.

But here's the amazing thing.....


they're still alive!

They've been in there since October and they haven't frozen to death yet.
I'm just shocked about this.
We've even had snow and those stinkin' suckers are still alive. I think they're hibernating or something because they don't move unless I tap on their little cage and then they start to move around. Isn't that crazy?

Just thought you'd want to know!

Gingerbread Time!!!

There's my boy with his Gingerbread House!
Can you believe that his preschool teacher's were brave enough to do this craft with a bunch of 4 year olds? I was wondering how they were going to pull it off but when I dropped off Christian that morning they already had the houses put together and all the kids had to do was decorate!

Daddy was Christian's special helper for the morning! They did an awesome job!

Carter and his mommy created a masterpiece too!

Tada!! Here's the finished product and that's Christian's new look when you tell him to smile.

Christian made it clear as soon as I picked him up from school that this house was NOT going to become a decoration. He planned on eating it and he and McKenna were chowing down before we even got home. We actually still have some of that Gingerbread house left and that's because it's currently sitting on top of the freezer out of the reach of sticky little fingers.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We went ahead and decorated for Christmas even though we're moving on December 23rd (yeah, you read that right!).

McKenna loves the tree and I'm actually thankful that we don't have our regular tree up, because I really could care less what this one looks like. McKenna moves all the ornaments around and since they're all plastic, it's not a big deal!

We decided to go with a fake potted tree because it should be easy for us to pick up and move.

We went to Target and Christian picked out all the ornaments, he set up a train track around the bottom of it and we were done!

I love those sweet little hands that are constantly busy exploring things.

We got this light up little Christmas tree from Hallmark and it's already broken, but it was a big hit while it lasted!
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So that's the majority of our Christmas decorations! Simple and child friendly!